Never had one ... until the two today.

I was trying to develop a moderate-power load for my .30-06 Mauser -- basically a .30-40 Krag equivalent with a 180-gr. Speer RNSP at 2300 fps.

I used twice-fired Remington cases (full-length sized) and CCI primers. Powder was 43 and 44 gr. of IMR 4064. Weather was about 80 and humid, altitude maybe a couple hundred feet above sea level.

On the last round of three with 43.0 gr., there was a click as if I were dry-firing, followed immediately by the boom of a gunshot. Velocity was the same as the other two, around 2250 fps, and there were no signs of excess pressure or damage to the case.

I thought it was the guy at the next bench, firing his .22-250 a split second after me. So I continued and it happened again with one of the three rounds at 44.0 gr. Again, there were no pressure signs or case damage, and velocity appeared normal at my desired speed of 2300 fps--but there's no way I'm using that load!

I have used IMR 3031 and IMR 4895 before for this type of load, without problems of any kind, and it looks as if I will be doing so again!

Anyone else ever have anything like this?

John

I would think that maybe the primers were not seated deep enough and did crush properly. Or some bad primers can't see anything wrong with the load.

All the primer pockets were tight when I was seating them, and I checked each by hand.

I didn't do or notice anything different from usual and I've never had this problem with other loads.

John

Saeed has some primer tests at:

http://www.accuratereloading.com/primer.html

He had some CCIs hang fire when frozen.

Any chance you had polishing media stuck in the flash hole?

Don

I agree with Don. The first thing that came
to my mind was media in the primer hole. The load looks fine to me although I use Federal primers.

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RC

John - it's happened to me before. I was working up some reduced loads for my 300 Win using 170 gr FN (.30-30 style.) I was trying to get 2,200 fps to mimick .30-30 velocities. I believe the powder was IMR 3031 and it was a cast bullet load from an older Lyman manual. Somewhere in the 30-35 grain area. Anyway, I experienced the same thing as you. Trust me, I can happen and it messes up your mind. I deep-sixed all remaining loads to the bottom of davey jones locker.

How old is the powder? I've had a couple of hangfires too, but not with 40 grains of anything. What is the recommended min and max loading also? I don't have any of my reloading books handy (all packed up for my move in November) but I would be curious about that. I'd be tempted to go up several grains and see how it shot, but the problem there is I would suspect a bad batch of powder or primers or something else first, and wouldn't want those issues to cause a hangfire at an even higher loading. Having said that, I never have had any of mine show pressure signs but the thought of it sometimes gives me the creeps....

Thanks to all for the replies.

I did wonder if there might be some media in there--I had left this brass sitting in the sifter tray for a few days and the corncob seemed to be a little harder to shake out. However, I checked all the flash holes at the time so I don't think that's it.

Don't think it was frozen primers in yesterday's weather conditions here in Virginia.

Lars--funny you should mention this happening to you with the 170 and IMR 3031, I fired these problem loads right after firing some groups with 170 Sierras and IMR 3031 at right around 2200 fps. My finicky .30-06 makes a pretty fair .30-30, it turns out.

Mark White--Powder is from last year's production if I'm reading the lot # right. This load is toward the bottom end in all the books. In fact I went up to the maximum (50.0 gr.) with the same powder, case and primer and a different 180-gr. bullet and everything worked just fine. I also tried a reduced load with only 40.0 gr. and the same 180 Speer round nose, and that worked fine, too.

John

If I may venture a comment:

It sounds as if your load is too light for reliable ignition.

If you leave too much airspace in the case, the primer flash might have a hard time igniting the charge, especially if the charge has shifted to the front of the case from recoil or for any other reason.

If you use a reduced load, you might want to consider some type of filler to position the charge next to the primer for each shot. Otherwise, you might need to move to a faster powder. Most load manuals that I have used list powders that will work well with reduced loads. Be careful--these are usually very fast burning powders with regard to rifle propellants.

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Happiness is a 200 yard bughole.

[This message has been edited by Powderman (edited 08-27-2001).]

I agree with you--apparently IMR 4064 is just a little too slow-burning for this application.

Had the same problem with my '06 and H380, full loads were no problem, reduced loads produced a hangfire on almost every shot. I have used reduced loads (168gr @ 2400) of 4064 without any problems. I wonder if switching to a mag primer might help?
I have achieved reduced velocities by using a case full of IMR 5010 but I get high shot-shot velocity variations with this, though accuracy isn't bad. Hang fires are a good way to see if you are flinching!
C.G.B.
C.G.B.

Correction to my last post. I got the hangfires with BLC-2 not H380.
C.G.B.

Very interesting post...

I've seen a couple of hangfires on the skeet range..

The only hangfires I've ever had other than with a muzzleloader occurred with some VERY old factory loads in 7 x 57 that a co-worker of mine got at a gunshow and gave to me.....

Of a dozen or so cartridges, nearly all were hangfires......

Powderman is probably on to it. Too light a load doesn't offer the primer a good "target". I've never tried adding a filler. Even tho the flash hole is clear could some of your cleaning media be in the case causing who knows what?

I don't see how 43 grains of anything could be position sensitive in a 30-06. I have seen hangfires and fail to fire occur with contaminated powder and or primers, most commonly with case lube. The idea of bad primers makes the most sense. Maybe the humid weather got to them, if they weren't stored inside. A lot of things can go wrong, that's what makes for a great forum !!!
Good luck and good shooting.

The only hang fires I ever experienced came while using CCI 250 Mag Primers. I had at least 20 of these before I sent the remainder back to CCI....I do not use CCi today. Too long of a story just now. However, I recently ran another series of test and CCI was still the most eratic of all.
George

The primers would be my immediate reaction but you might want to check your firing pin spring.

Bill

I got some good hangfires with some mixed surplus 303 ammo. I had a lot of fun with them, they help show up follow through problems, went back and bought some more.
MR